Freezing of fish on-board fishing vessels has been attempted or practiced in one fashion or another for many years. However, the fresh freezing of fish immediately after catching the same, as heretofore practiced, has not resulted in widespread demand for whole fish preserved via such practices, primarily because apparatus and methods heretofore taught have not resulted in easy and quick handling of fish in a manner that yields high quality whole frozen fish products for later thaw and reuse.
Thus, it would be a distinct and important improvement to provide an apparatus for the quick freezing of freshly caught whole fish that would minimize the time required for handling, and which would enable high quality whole fish to be provided for cold storage, and thus for later marketing and use.
Moreover, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus for fresh on-board freezing apparatus which crew members can easily employ to quickly freeze whole fish. Further it would be advantageous that such an apparatus include features that allow such frozen whole fish to be quickly and easily handled, via easily used on-board equipment. Thus, the advantages of a novel apparatus providing such desirable features which is employable on a fishing vessel to provide a workable whole fish freezing method can be readily appreciated.
The foregoing figures, being merely exemplary, contain various elements that may be present or omitted from actual apparatus configurations and various vessel design adaptions and implementations depending upon the circumstances. An attempt has been made to draw the figures in a way that illustrates at least those elements that are significant for an understanding of the various embodiments and aspects of the invention. Optional or alternate features, may be utilized in order to provide efficient, low cost on-board fish freezing equipment which can be implemented in a desired throughput size and physical configuration for providing optimum fish freezing plant operations that assure quality of the product. Various other elements of the submersion tank for on-board brine freezing of fresh whole fish, especially as applied for different variations of the functional components illustrated, may be utilized in order to provide a submersion tank system with pivotable screen and submersion lids as taught herein, in combination with other on-board fish freezing equipment.